From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Earl "Dan" Hartman (December 8, 1950—March 22, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer best known for the songs "I Can Dream About You" and "Instant Replay".

Career

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Hartman joined his first band, The Legends, at the age of 13, with his brother, Dave. Hartman played keyboards and wrote much of the band's music. The band released several records, but none was a hit. He joined the Edgar Winter Group and played bass on three of their albums; he wrote the band's second biggest pop hit "Free Ride" in 1972. He launched a solo career in 1976. A re-recorded version of "Free Ride" was used in the movie, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, in 1995.

In late 1978, Hartman reached #1 on the Dance Charts with the discofied single, "Instant Replay", which crossed over to #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979. Musicians Hartman worked with on the associated album included Vinnie Vincent and G.E. Smith. This was followed by his second chart topper, "Relight My Fire", which featured friend Loleatta Holloway, singing as well, in 1979. "Relight My Fire" later became the theme for the NBC talk show Tomorrow. There was also a cover version of "Instant Replay", which was a one-hit wonder for a boy duo called Yell! (Paul Varney and Daniel James) in January 1990.

He was back in the charts again with the Top 10 single, "I Can Dream About You," which was featured on his new album of the same name as well as the Streets of Fire soundtrack in 1984. The tune reached #6 on the U.S. charts, and (on rerelease in 1985) #12 in the UK. Hartman was featured as a bartender in the video, which received heavy rotation on MTV. In the movie Streets of Fire, the single "I Can Dream About You" was actually sung by Winston Ford, whose vocals were convincingly lip-synched by Stoney Jackson, an African American actor.

In 1984, Hartman also performed "Heart of the Beat" under the band name 3V with Charlie Midnight for the soundtrack of Breakin' directed by Joel Silberg.

In 1985, Hartman scored a third number-one single on the Dance Music charts, "We Are The Young."

During the next decade he worked as a songwriter and producer, and collaborated with such artists as Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Tyler, Paul Young, James Brown, Nona Hendryx, Holly Johnson, Living in a Box and Steve Winwood.

In 2009 his song Relight My Fire was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Death

Hartman died of a brain tumor resulting from AIDS on March 22, 1994 in his home in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 43. At the time of his death, his music was enjoying a revival; a cover version of his song, Relight My Fire, became a British number-one hit for Take That and Lulu. Sales of Hartman's solo recordings, group efforts, production, songwriting and compilation inclusions, exceed 50 million records worldwide. He was cremated.

Hartman's solo cover of the Edgar Winter Group's song "Free Ride" was featured in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie the year after his death.

Discography

Albums

• Who Is Dan Hartman? (1976)
• Images (1976)
• Instant Replay (1978) #80 U.S.
• Relight My Fire (1979) #189 U.S.
• April Music Recorded Music Library (1981)
• It Hurts to Be in Love (1982)
• I Can Dream About You (1984) #55 U.S.
• White Boy (1986) Never Released
• New Green Clear Blue (1989)
• Keep The Fire Burnin' (1994)
• Super Hits (2004)

Singles

• ¹ Also on the soundtrack for Streets of Fire
• ² 1985 re-release; originally peaked at #78
• ³ Also on the soundtrack for Fletch

^[6]

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
• List of HIV-positive people
• List of disco artists (A-E)
• List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1980s
• List of people from Pennsylvania

References

External links

• Dan Hartman at the Internet Movie Database
• Danhartman.com
• Danhartman.net
• Dan Hartman at Find a Grave